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Taliban beheads two boys in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters beheaded two boys aged 10 and 16 as a warning to villagers not to cooperate with the Afghan government, local officials said. The boys, named Khan and Hameedullah, had travelled to Afghan army and police checkpoints near their home in the southern province of Kandahar, scrounging for leftover food to bring to their families, the officials said.

Kabul airport targeted in militant suicide attack

Militants launched a suicide and grenade attack on Kabul airport early Monday, taking over a nearby building which security forces attempted to storm as blasts and gunfire rocked the Afghan capital. Loud explosions and bursts of small-arms fire erupted for at least two hours and were continuing, with the US embassy sounding its "duck and cover" alarm and its loudspeakers warning that the alarm was not a drill.

Three Americans killed in Afghan 'insider attack'

An Afghan soldier shot dead two US soldiers and one US civilian on Saturday, the latest "insider attack" to shake efforts by the two armies to work together to defeat the Taliban insurgency. The killings in the eastern province of Paktika came on the same day that one Italian soldier died when a grenade was thrown into an armoured vehicle in Farah province, in the far west of the country.

One dead in attack on Afghan Red Cross office

Militants on Wednesday launched a two-hour suicide and gun attack on a Red Cross office in Jalalabad city, east Afghanistan, killing at least one guard, officials said. The assault was the latest in a series of high profile, co-ordinated attacks as insurgents pile pressure on the US-backed government ahead of the withdrawal of 100,000 NATO combat troops by the end of next year. "A suicide attacker first detonated himself at the gate of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) compound," Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the interior ministry, told AFP.

Afghan suicide attack kills 14, including politician

A suicide bomber struck outside government buildings in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing 14 people including a local politician in the latest attack to target provincial officials. Emergency services rushed to the scene and took the wounded to hospital after the bomber, who was wearing police uniform, blew himself up next to Rasoul Mohseni, the head of Baghlan's provincial council.

Four US soldiers killed in south Afghanistan

A roadside bomb killed four US soldiers in south Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said, the latest fatalities for the NATO-led coalition which is winding down after 12 years of fighting. The soldiers died in the volatile province of Kandahar, where five US troops were killed by a similar improvised explosive device targeting a vehicle on May 4. Kandahar is a hotbed of insurgent activity, with large areas under the control of Taliban militants who were ousted from power in Kabul in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Bomb kills five U.S. soldiers in southern Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. Armed Forces said on Saturday. The Taliban launched their annual spring offensive on Sunday, saying it would take aim at foreign military bases and diplomatic areas. Three British troops were killed by a roadside bomb earlier this week in the southern province of Helmand. (Reporting by Dylan Welch and Amie Ferris-Rotman)

Bomb kills five US troops in south Afghanistan

A roadside bomb killed five US troops in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, in the biggest attack on NATO-led forces since the Taliban launched their "spring offensive" a week ago. "Five American soldiers were killed at about noon when their armoured vehicle hit a powerful roadside mine in Maiwand district," Kandahar province's police chief General Abdul Razeq told AFP.

Taliban kill three police in Afghan 'spring offensive'

Insurgents killed three police officers in Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, in an attack that the Taliban claimed marked the start of their annual "spring offensive". A roadside bomb blast in the restive central province of Ghazni targeted a police convoy that was travelling to the scene of a Taliban attack in Zana Khan district. Deputy provincial chief Mohammad Hassan Adel and two of his police guards were killed, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, the deputy provincial governor of Ghazni, told AFP.

Afghanistan quake, floods kills at least 33

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An earthquake in Afghanistan's east and flash floods in the north killed at least 33 people on Wednesday as hundreds of traditional mud-brick homes collapsed, officials said. The 5.7 magnitude quake, which hit before 2 p.m. (10:30 p.m. British time) was felt as far away as the Indian capital New Delhi and was the latest in a spate of tremors to shake Asia this month.
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